New product I just tried!

I have really amp'd up my substitute teaching this year, and when you work with 6th-8th grade, you have to be more...sensitive.. to what you are wearing.....

Being a woman who has many... assets... sometimes no matter what shirt you choose, it's just not going to be high enough! ;) I have some really favorite shirts I just don't wear because they are just too low, in my opinion, for teenager work.

someone told me about a product in passing and I actually just found it tonight at Dollar General (but I bet Walmart and other places have it too- in their "as seen on tv" sections) for $10 for 3 of them... they are called Cami-secret.






As you can see in the before and after, it really makes a big difference! You can't even tell it's on, it is very loose (it hooks to your bra straps!) and thin (so if you are worried about being overly warm, that won't happen with this! :) it is made of silky material.. I wish there were some of t-shirt material, but that's ok!

At the store, it was a package of 3 for $10. Online you can get 12 for $20+s/h.... thinking of saving up for the xtra colors...Even my 12 and 14 yo daughters thought it was kind of neat and they "might" try them some time.....

So, I hope you like these as much as I do! I think they are a great idea! I have included the title as a link to the website to order them from if you would like variety....

New workup of Routines

Here's a copy of my new routines I am starting to baby step into at our house. Everyone is assigned one "space" for the week... plus their bedroom...... A variation of zones....plus a "mom's basic schedule" and a 2 week menu.....This menu cost us $110 for the dinner portion (plus a few fill ins) for a family of 5 for 2 weeks...... the kids are getting lunch and breakfast at school this year.....

Mom’s Basic Schedule:

5-5:15- dress to shoes

5:15-6 walk

6-6:45 Kids ready for school

6:45-7:30 Breakfast, Meds/vits, dw, laundry

7:30- 8:30- QTWG, Table, Bathroom

8:30-9- Island, Countertops, Garbage, laundry

9-10- Rachel Ray, Dining room

10-11 Bedrooms

11-12 The Dr.s, Kitchen

12-1, Lunch, DW, laundry

1-3- Nap OR Bedrooms, Family room, Van, yard

3-5 Homework, snack, sweep, start dinner, kids chores

5-7- Paige Shower (5), Hannah Shower (7) Dinner (6:30), clean up dinner, put away school stuff (by front door), Devotion before dinner

7-9 Crochet, bake or read

Bedroom:

Monday: Straighten dresser drawers and top

Tuesday: straighten closet/floor (sweep, throw away garbage, put empty hangers in front of closet rod)

Wednesday: Gather dirty clothes, take down stairs, change bedsheets

Thursday: Pick up floor/sweep, sweep under bed, take out garbage

Friday: straighten desk, dust furniture, sweep/steam mop

Saturday: enjoy

Sunday: gather dirty laundry and bring down

Hallways:

Monday: sweep, pick up floor

Tuesday: sweep, declutter basket in front hall- put extras away properly

Wednesday: sweep, clean yellow table (declutter, wipe down)

Thursday: sweep, wipe down big door, clean glass door and white part

Friday: sweep, steam mop both halls, dust walls and pictures, wipe doors opening into hall (bedrooms) and knobs

Outside:

Monday: clean out van/car, bring in and put away things properly

Tuesday: sweep sidewalk, take cans out in am, back in at night

Wednesday: pick up branches front and back

Thursday: pick up trash/toys, etc front and back and put away

Friday: sweep sidewalk, take cans out in am and back in at night

Saturday (for adult- mow front and back)

Dining Room:

Monday: Sweep floor, Take out garbage

Tuesday: Clean table, under table, and vacuum

Wednesday: Clean Buffet and drysink, corner, under chairs

Thursday: Wipe down wood chairs, steam mop floor

Friday: Dust, final pickup of room, take out garbage

Bathrooms:

Monday: Gather all dirty laundry and take down, take out garbage

Tuesday: clean off countertops, wipe down, shine faucets, mirror

Wednesday: Wash toilet, sweep floor

Thursday: Wash tub/shower, shine faucet, wash walls

Friday: Wipe everything down, sweep, take out garbage, gather all dirty laundry and take down

Menu for 2 weeks:

1. Baked chicken ziti- 1 lb ground chicken breast (or ground turkey), 3 cans spaghetti sauce, 1 lb ziti, 6 oz mozzarella

Green Beans- garlic salt and pepper

2. Leftover Spaghetti Sauce over spaghetti noodles, salad
3. 3 lbs chicken breast, 1 jar salsa, bake in crockpot, shred for fajitas (lettuce, sourcream, cheese, black olives, refried beans –homemade) – cooked broccoli with lemon and butter/salt/pepper
4. Leftover fajita meat, 1 block velveeta, 2 pkg cream cheese, 1 can rotel, 2 bags tortilla chips, sour cream, refried beans, salad
5. 3 lbs chicken breasts baked with garlic, salt and pepper, ½ each breast. Freeze ½ of this. Take what is left, top with sliced ham and provolone, melt cheese. Rice with garlic butter salt, cooked broccoli parmesan
6. other ½ of chicken breasts, dice small, toss with rice, diced carrots, green onions, broccoli, soy sauce, whisked eggs (chicken fried rice)
7. Corn chowder, homemade bread, salad
8. chicken noodle soup, homemade bread, salad
9. 3 lbs ground beef/taco seasoning- tacos, lettuce, sour cream, black olives, refried beans, homemade tortillas
10. with leftover taco meat and cheese sauce- taco lasagna, salad
11. Beef Stroganoff, noodles, broccoli parmesan
12. chili (beans on side) fritos, sour cream, shredded cheese, salad
13. Leftover chili- chili dogs (buns), homemade potato wedges, veggies/dip
14. OUT!

Menu Week of June 14, 2010

Menu Week of 6/15/2010

Monday: Chicken Pot Pie

Tuesday: Chicken Taco lasagna

Recipe: Leftover shredded salsa chicken, flour tortillas, salsa, kernel corn, shredded cheese. Layer and bake. Top with: sour cream, lettuce, black olives, scallions, black beans

Shredded salsa chicken: take a bag of chicken breasts (can be done with regular bone in chicken- any type) and put in a large roasting pan with lid. Dump a jar or medium (or your favorite spicy-ness) salsa over the top and bake until chicken is done and tender- I cooked the breasts over an hour. Take out and, using 2 forks, shred in the pan (with the salsa), mixing the chicken with the salsa. This makes a LOT. We used it one night for topping nachos, then mixed it in the leftover nacho sauce for lunches the next day. What was leftover (that was too much for the nacho dip!) I froze to use for “something else”….. this sounds like a good use!

Wednesday:- Spaghetti- old faithful! ;) with beef, green beans

Thursday- Baked chicken legs, Broccoli, corn, potato salad

Friday- chicken tetrazzini Green beans with bacon and brown sugar

1 16-oz package whole wheat spaghetti (use ½ of package or 8 oz)1 1/4 cup finely chopped onion (1 cup sauteed)3 T butter1 cup chopped green bell pepper5 1/2 cups cooked, diced chicken4 cups grated Montery Jack Cheese2- 10 3/4 oz cans cream of mushoom soup (I used 2 servings of my cream of soup recipe)1 1/4 cup 2% milksalt and pepper to taste

Break spaghetti in half and cook as directed on package until al dente; drain. Saute onions in butter. Thouroughly mix in onions and remaining ingredients with spaghetti in a large bowl. Put spaghetti mixture in 2 containers, and freeze.To prepare for serving, thaw tetrazzini a nd put in a baking dish. Bake uncovered in a preheated 350 degree oven until bubbly about 30-40 minutesNumber of Servings: 12

Update from the Flood zone! :)

Well, this is what we saw almost 3 weeks ago... it started raining on a friday, and didn't stop until sunday. The one picture is from our front door to the right, the other front door to the left. What a wild roller coaster we have been on since!

I cannot BEGIN to thank all the people who have helped us and our neighbors over the last 2+ weeks! SO MANY churches mobilized and knew JUST what to do before we even had a THOUGHT about what we were going to do!

As fast as the water came (2 inches every 15-20 min really) it went- left the house at 10:15 am, were able to return by 5:30 and stay the night! Some on our block were not so lucky and lost 95% of their homes! By the time the "clean up" was done, studs, floor joists and ceilings were left! :(

Both schools principals came by Monday to check on us- along with guidance counselors, the FCA leaders, teachers and faculty! It was just amazing to see them there! You don't realize they KNOW what is going on. Monday night the PTO from the elementary school came by and we were talking, she said "we have a grill and some food we are going to do for you guys" I told her they could set up in our front yard. That was all it took for God to do his work!

We started trying to do things on our own that day- Scott's parents showed up at 7:30 that am to help get the big furniture out, the heavy area rug, etc and shop vac up the mud. I think that night friends who had been calling all day to come help us and we turning them down just came over and ignored us! LOL

The next day one of my daughter's friends' dads came over (he's a contractor) and he set us on the right path of what to take and what to leave..... thank goodness it was not in our MAIN living area, just the family room, dd14's bedroom, and the laundry room. While Scott was back there with him, I was out front working with the grills, food, and trying to get people to take a break from the emotionally and physically draining work they were doing. That day we had volunteers TAKE food to people so they would eat. We had to do that some the next day too. People learned after that!

Tuesday night the Mayor, our Alderman (a woman!) and several other people came and stood in our front yard and talked about what was going on with the food- the mayor asked if port a potty's and tents would help, so the next morning they set up 4 tents and 2 potty's for us! The rest of the week was a blur! Volunteers would come to find out where to go, where a need was, donations were dropped off at our house to be disbursed to the people on the block- including 2 pallets of bottled water and tons of cleaning supplies! We ended up with many tables, coolers, chairs in our yard as well as 3 grills going from 10 am to about 7 pm every day. Food to be grilled was provided by Publix grocery store, and other food was brought in by local restaurants and just dropped! not to mention all the food/drinks/clothing/etc dropped by just PEOPLE wanting to help! If we had a need, it was immediatly remedied! God provided for our every need.

Every night someone would ask me "who is going to help you tomorrow" "God will send them to me" I would say- and every day someone who was amazing would come! "what food is coming tomorrow" "God knows" and sure enough, just the right amount of food was brought! By Thursday we started getting non-perishables, which before then we couldn't have thought about, but by that time, we could think about it! God knew our needs and when to provide everything! It just worked SO perfectly!

I have become known by many names now..... Jenny the red head (my new hair color!), Jenny from Facebook (I was updating as often as possible to help the relief efforts), "command central" was the name of our house! LOL People are still contacting me wanting to know how to help, or asking me for help (my neighbors) and I am glad to do it. When other areas opened up in Hendersonville, we made sure that they were taken well care of, just like our street! Our community has been AMAZING!

Tonight the kids' elementary school's PTO put on a fundraiser to aid the 16 families in the school affected by the flood. Originally the fundraiser was going to be the weekend after the flood, but they cancelled it to do this instead. It was SO amazing to be there and see all of them and KNOW they were doing it for MY family!

God sure has taught me a million lessons these last 2+ weeks, and I'm not sure if I will ever really understand all of them or even realize all of them, but I am so glad I was able to help out in the small way that I did.

I'm not telling you all this to toot my horn, but to account to you what a wonderful community I live in, how they have blessed us, and those on our street, and my small part in it! I'm so glad God could use me and my family this way! I feel so blessed! Even more than before the flood! :)

Update on Flood needs

So, the day is done....had a lot of work done today... most I couldn't do because of health issues.....grrrrr..... We had donations come today, so I wanted to update the needs list for us....

Flood Items Needed

Clothing:
Gift cards to Wal-mart, Goodwill, Etc.

Scott: Size 36X30 Pants, Size L-XL shirts, Size 11 shoes
Jenny: Size 18/20 Shirts, Size 16/18 pants, Size 8-9 shoes
PJs are always a good thing!
Kids clothes are taken care of.... still going through to see what we got for us... will update when I know better!

Furniture:

LeighAnn’s Room

Dresser
Desk/chair
Book Shelf (all her books were ruined because she didn’t have a book shelf in her room and they were in material totes, or in the drawers under her bed in there)

Family Room:

Desk
Chair
Couch/loveseat or any similar thing
Entertainment center
Upholstered chair
Lamps

Building Materials (will insert measurements of rooms when I get them):

Laminate wood flooring for Family room and LeighAnn’s Room
Something to replace the paneling with – Drywall
Insulation for the walls
2X4's
Paint (teal for LeighAnn’s room, not sure on the family room yet)
Quarter round
Baseboard
Laminate stick tiles for the laundry room
Duct work (completely saturated, so we can’t run a/c until its replaced, can’t replace until it’s dried out some down there)
Some sort of outside storage (shed was already bad-but could have been repaired, but now it just needs to be taken down, it is all wood so it will rot)

Lowe’s or Home Depot Gift Cards

Someone asked about paypal, so.... shogan63@comcast.net